Getting an Education at the Hospital

My first night taking call as a missionary surgeon and teacher of PAACS residents at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya was filled with teaching moments...for both the residents I shared the call with, and for me.  As usual for my call nights, my drift off to sleep at about 10:45pm was abruptly halted when I was summoned to the hospital's casualty (emergency room) by the second year resident on call.  My family and I have been slowly regaining our energy and sleep patterns since moving here one week ago, but I wasn't about to gain any ground this night.  Dr. Kanyi informed me he had three patients to present.  My first of three patients was a 3 year old with deep partial thickness burns to the forearms.  Dr. Kanyi had already dressed her wounds, tucked her in to the Peds ward, and directed my attention to the two other patients awaiting me.  He presented the history and physical of both patients in a clear and concise fashion and I was impressed.  Both patients had sustained blunt abdominal trauma (a boy hit with a stick 4 days ago, and a 30 year old male hit by a plank of wood being carried on a motorbike two days ago.)  The resident wanted to take both to the OR, but I wasn't going to be so hasty.  I was skeptical of his assessment and decision making and wanted to examine the patients myself.  After laying eyes on each patient I quickly realized Dr. Kanyi had been spot on. Both examined with peritonitis and off to the theatre we went.  I asked when the OR would be ready, and he responded with "I had already informed them of these cases, and they are ready now."  Nice!! Both patients required small bowel resections, and we walked our way through the cases together.  I shared tips with him that I had gleaned from my practice, and I relied on him to ensure our hand sewn anastamosis was solid.  I didn't reveal to him that the last hand sewn small bowel anastamosis I had done was as a fourth year resident on my pediatric surgery rotation. His surgical skills were on par with U.S. residents I had taught in the states.  My first impression...these residents must be getting a good training.  So far I had witnessed excellent patient evaluation, decision making, and operative technique...from a second year resident.

After operating all night, both Dr. Kanyl and I were fatigued, but I was impressed with his enthusiasm and vigor as he continued to work the next day, and double scrub a distal gastrectomy I did for a gastric outlet obstruction. He didn't have to scrub in and help, but he did.  I thought to myself, "Perhaps this work ethic and exposure to good cases are a few of the reasons for his early competence." 

Before I arrived at Tenwek, I was excited to participate in the education of PAACS residents.  After one week of surgery at Tenwek, my excitement has risen, as I have witnessed excellent comradary, caring attitudes, and a passion for learning the art and science of surgery.  I look forward to getting to know each on a personal level and not only teaching them surgery, but about how to grow in their love for Christ and understand our purpose here on earth.  I'm sure I will learn from them just the same. 

To round out the weekend, my cases were as follows:  resection of a huge lipoma in a guys neck that extended down to his carotid sheath (everything in Africa is bigger...the pathology, the animals, the mosquitoes), antrectomy with BII reconstruction for gastric outlet obstruction (take out part of the stomach because it is blocked), suprapubic catheter placement on two patients in a row, both with pelvic fractures and urethral transection (google it), a craniectomy for a depressed skull fracture, declining GCS and a blown pupil (take off part of the skull because the brain underneath got whacked), exploratory laparotomy for small bowel obstruction (cut scar tissue blocking the intestine), repair of an incarcerated inguinal hernia in an eight month old, another ex lap, and an EGD with removal of a not one, but two key rings in the esophagus of a 2 year old.
Glad I have the help of residents!

Picture Post

Here are just a few shots of our past week. More to come soon, including our apartment, etc. 

 It is hard to see, but these are baboons we saw on the side of the road on our way from Nairobi to Tenwek.

Cole helping Geoffry hoe up the land for a garden! Beside them is the rainwater tank where we get our drinking water (which we still filter) 

A new friend!

More new friends, the Espy girls, Julia, May and Ivey

My burned up granola :(

Our fun fellows

We went to our first birthday party here, one of the fellow missionary kids. I didn't have a gift or a bag, so this is what she got! (it's 500 shillings, not dollars!)

A bookcase we had made for our homeschool books! It only cost $40. 

Anna's birthday party fun

Carry the water to the other side

Yummy treat of chocolate covered bananas

Pilly made the trek to Africa too!

Fun in a cupboard

Tucker is obsessed with this phone. No one will ever get ahold of us because it is always off the hook.

Having a "Good" Bye

Moving 8000 miles away to serve the Lord at a mission hospital is exciting and has its perks, but definitely comes at a cost.  One great cost is being away from your friends and family for a long time. We understood this cost when we decided to follow Christ to Kenya, but that doesn't make it any easier.  In the three weeks prior to our departure, we had no fewer than four going away parties, two with friends and two with family.  We wanted to see everyone one last time before we left, and we were pretty sure everyone wanted to see us too.  We love parties and who doesn't love a party in your honor!  It was like we had four graduation parties back to back, complete with food, gifts, yard games, and great conversation.  However, as each friend or family member would prepare to go home we were repeatedly faced with saying goodbye.  Often I struggled with the right words to say, as "goodbye" seemed too permanent. Many times I would say, "see ya in two years" or "see you when you come visit," trying to prompt some people to come visit us.  All those hugs, tears, macho guy hugs with the customary two slaps on the back, and parting words got me thinking about what makes a bye "good."

Erin and I did decide what a "bad" bye is.  A "bad" bye is when you hug and say, "We will see you again before we leave," and then you don't.  Sometimes you don't see them again on accident, but it is entirely possible that you could purposefully avoid them if you are really adverse to emotional situations.  Badbyes take away the emotional sting of the event but I wouldn't recommend it.  We were tempted many times to pull this trick on purpose, but if it happened to you it was purely an accident.  I even made a trip up to the hospital in Grand Rapids the morning of our flight because I needed to follow through and prevent a badbye.  I almost stood up my surgical mentor and friend, and that relationship was too valuable to snub.

A truly "good" bye allows both people to walk away knowing how they stand in each others eyes. Meaningful comments are exchanged, and you know that if you never saw that person again, he or she would know they are valued.  You both walk away without regrets of things unspoken.  The difficulty is that this can become exhausting, especially when you are repeating the event hundreds of times in a three week span.  We were inundated with goodbyes because of our situation, and the effect on our emotions was unexpected.  I thought we would be a basket case at each party, but the emotions slowly drained.  As good as it is to have these hugs, tears, and "I'll miss you" moments, it doesn't appear sustainable at such a high rate.  Think about it...what would it be like if every goodbye we said to each other was truly a "good"bye. Who says a "good"bye has to be limited to major events?  "Hey, thanks for letting me borrow your chain saw...and before I go back home, I wanted to tell you that you are an amazing person who I really enjoy being with.  You are a trusted friend and God will do amazing things in your life.  I can't wait to see you again."  Hey, anyone could get in a car accident and die, right?  And...this could create the potential for an unintentional badbye.  We SHOULD do this every time!!!  However, giving big hugs, sheadding tears, and telling someone how much they mean to you every time you part ways would be completely exhausting, not to mention quite awkward.  (I dare you to try it for a day...and then write a blog post about it.)  Just like most other things in life, "good" byes are best in moderation.  However, it is hard to move across the world and have anything in moderation.

In reality, we do miss everyone and look forward to seeing all our friends and family back home in a short two years.  If we didn't cry when we said goodbye to you, please don't take it personal.  It is just that all our dopamine and serotonin was depleted without time to replenish.

While we are gone, don't be shy at telling each other once in a while how you appreciate one another.  Make sure you reconcile your differences and don't go to sleep without smoothing things out with your spouse.  You should even share a big macho two slaps on the back type hug with your friends every once in a while.  You never know about tomorrow.  You may get eaten by a hippo and miss out on saying what needs to be said.

We're here!

I've been writing this over many days, but we've had no internet till now. So here is what I have been compiling. 

We’re here! We’ve arrived at Tenwek and are in our new apartment. So much has happened in the past week, I feel like we’ve already been gone a year! Our apartment is great, even better than I expected (in most ways). It is clean and spacious. There are 3 bedrooms, so two boys in each. There’s even bunk beds and a crib. We’ve been “eating around” as they call it, or having one meal a day at other people’s houses. That has been nice, not worrying about cooking yet, and getting to meet people. The main meal of the day is at 1:00 and is your big meal. Then dinner is at 6:00 or 6:30 and is a lighter meal.

We are “down by the river” or “riverside” as they call it. (doesn’t that sound like a nice nursing home?) We can’t actually see the river because of the trees, but we can hear it. And so far I have not seen any hippos meandering past my window, much to the boys disappointment. We have to walk about 5 minutes uphill to get anywhere, but so far the boys haven’t complained too much.

The boys seem to be enjoying exploring and checking out the place. They love running and jumping everywhere, climbing trees, looking for lizards and chameleons to have as a pet. We all know what happened to Poisy the turtle, so we’ll see how that goes….

We got to go on a tour of the hospital on Sunday evening, which is much bigger than I expected. Hope Eric doesn’t get lost! We did get to go into the nursery and see all the tiny babies, that was fun. Don’t tell anyone that I slipped a little girl out in my bag and am harboring her in my dresser drawer. I thought if I started tanning in my spare time, no one might realize she’s not mine.

There are a few quirky things I’ve realized that must be noted:

* We have an oven. For that I am thankful. However, it is missing half of the knobs, that I am told can’t be replaced, and there is no knob to tell me what the oven temperature is. And no oven thermometer at this point. So…. It looks like I will be playing the guessing game, and we might have lasagna, or we might have lasagna smoothies. Or lasagna crisp.

* We have dressers in the bedrooms and drawers in the kitchen. That’s the good part. The bad part is I can’t really get them open. The drawers in the kitchen are sooo hard to get out, they must have been painted and then shoved back in and there are no knobs. The boys dresser drawers are also next to impossible to get open, I must open the bottom one first and then work my way up. Too bad we aren’t working at a nudist hospital. Then I wouldn’t need to worry. (well, I suppose that would cause it’s own set of worries)

*You can’t drink the water. And my children are half camel. Which is fine, because there is safe water to drink, it is just a matter of REMEMBERING to not drink the tap water. It becomes most obvious at teeth brushing time when I am so on edge yelling, “don’t put your brush under the tap!” “rinse your mouth with water from this cup while juggling your toothbrush and Don’t make a MESS on the floor that Tucker might try to lick!”

*There are two keys to the front door. One to open it and one to lock it. Yeah, try to figure that one out. I still haven’t.

*There is a booster seat for Tucker but no tray. So he is going to grow up real quick and be a big boy at the table. He has already knocked two plates off the table (that was at one meal) and it has no buckle. Casualty (what they call the E.R.), here we come. I wonder if we get a discount since Eric works there?

* We have to sleep under mosquito nets. Kind of like playing “tents” all the time. Tucker is trying to gnaw a hole through his with his tiny teeth. They are very annoying though, to put up and down in the morning/night.

*I have only been able to get the shower to be scalding hot or freezing cold. So, scalding hot it is! I don’t do well with cold showers.

*There is a bird here that sounds like a crying baby. For the love, that is the LAST thing I need, to be hearing fake crying babies. 

*We didn’t bring any tools with us, yet we have many things to hang, fix, adjust. What we DID bring was a set of tiny tools, they are meant to be toys, but are just miniature regular tools. And they have done the job! Thanks Greg and Marilyn, so glad Cooper loved them at your house J

All that being said, there are good moments and very hard moments as we try to adjust to our new home and new life, meet people and find our place. We appreciate all prayers and words of encouragement. We serve a big and worthy God, to Him be the glory.

Hope to write again soon.

PS. Eric started work today, waiting to hear how it went!

Trip details

Eric did a great job of hitting the highlights so far. I'll give you a little more details of some of the steps that got us here.

We got to the airport 2 hours early and THANKFULLY we had so much family there to help entertain the boys and help with bags. As we get up to the counter I am holding my breath as they weigh the first bag. Of course, it the one really overweight bag that is 67 lbs. "Oh... says the man, are they ALL going to be overweight?" Ha, ha, I say, Of course not! (I am starting to sweat) Then ever single proceeding bag is 51-52 lbs. (limit is 50) And every single bag he makes us start to unpack and take something out. No mercy. I of course am freaking out, " I need that packet of taco seasoning! Don't get rid of my 10 packages of streamers! (hey, people have birthdays in Africa too) Alex's SHOES! Eric of course, is calm as a cucumber and starts just shoving the stuff in the 2 bags that happen to be under 50. I eventually wander away after I realize I am no help in this process. 

We eventually get through and say our very tearful goodbyes, and then get ready for the first plane ride. The boys were so excited to get to ride on a real plane. The first flight was only 40 min to Detroit, in which I think they assumed we were then "at Africa" as they say. If only. 

We quickly got them some dinner and then boarded the plane to Amsterdam. I got the privilege of sitting next to Tucker on the side and Eric and the other 3 boys were in the middle row. 

6:15- Board the plane

6:45- Boys all watching their own screen/movie, Me entertaining Tucker with all my tricks

7:00- Tucker occasionally screaming, not too bad. Give everyone Benadryl

7:30- Novelty of the movie is wearing off for some children, dinner arrives, a nice distraction

8:00- Tucker is screaming now. We let him out of jail (we brought a car seat and bought him a seat on the plane) and he is roaming the aisle. Laying prostrate on the ground. Eating crumbs. (Benadryl, where are your effects???) Poking other passengers. Dumping things. Wiping everything in sight with a wet wipe.

8:30- Alex is getting irrationally tired (no nap) and yelling that Eric took away his salad (that he had not touched) so he couldn't eat it. (Why isn't Benadryl working??)

9:10- Cabin lights go off. Hope this will calm everyone. Chain Tucker to his carseat, screaming resumes and pleas for rescue. 

9:30 Mean male flight attendant comes and yells at Tucker, informing him that "no one wants to hear this" Yeah Dude, thanks, THAT helped. 

Benadryl, you are dead to me. 

I am so tired at this point, and feeling nauseous. I start to think of things I would rather be doing than being on this plane with these people (my own children). The list included but was not limited to:

* Potty training 30 children at once

*Working in an onion factory

*Arm wrestling an alligator

9:30- Tucker gives up and goes to sleep. 

10:00- Other children fall asleep in very uncomfortable positions. Eric and I drift in and out of semi-sleep. 

1:00 a.m.- Alex wakes crying, screaming because he is uncomfortable, Eric and I try holding him, shuffling him around, nothing helps.

1:30 a.m.- Lights come on in the cabin. Wake up everyone! it's breakfast time! AJ goes crazy with madness and pukes everywhere, all over his clothes, the pillow, blanket and Eric's arm. We quickly try to clean it up without others seeing. Cole wakes, crying, Tucker wakes, Cooper sleeps on.

2:00 a.m. (Yet, it is morning in Amsterdam, 8:00 a.m., so we must now tell our bodies, It's Morning! Rise and shine!) Drag stuff through the airport and then sit and wait for 3 hours for our next flight. 

11:30 a.m.- Board the plane for Nairobi. Overall this flight went much better. Tucker and Alex slept for the first few hours, Eric and I dozed off and on and Cole and Cooper watched 8 straight hours of movies and kid TV. And I let them, because THEY WEREN'T CRYING OR PUKING ON ME. 

8:30 p.m.- Arrive in the burned down Nairobi airport, wait for many hours to get luggage, in which the boys ran around (Cooper slept) and Eric fought valiantly for every one of our 14 bags. Then I search out the two drivers who came for us, they take the boys and I to a van (in which I pray that they are not in fact kidnapping us) while Eric tries to manuvere 3 carts of luggage up a hill.  

10:30 pm. We arrive at the Mennonite guest house where we promptly feel asleep and Eric had to wake all of us up at 10:30 this morning. He for some reason, is livin' on crazy and no sleep. 

Today was lovely, just relaxing at the house and letting the boys play on the slide and big swing. We also played a little tennis (aka hitting balls in all random directions) and walked around exploring. We went out to dinner with Stephanie and Ashleigh, new friends from Tenwek sent down to help us shop and got cell phones. 

Tomorrow I will go shopping ALL DAY with the girls and Eric will stay here with the boys. Hope it goes well! Thanks for reading this and caring about us! Let the adventures begin!

Arrival to Kenya, a Mental Photo Album

It has been a long time in the making.  As a college senior I experienced a medical ministry in Brazil that modeled for me how to treat someone physically which opens the doors for them to be treated spiritually as well.  After that trip I told God that I was willing to go wherever He thought best.  Twelve years later, His best is Kenya.

After no fewer than four going away parties, the Mitchell crew said a tear-filled goodbye in Grand Rapids and headed down the gateway to the next chapter in our lives...our crazy, trying to follow Christ the best we can, lives.  Someone told me once that during momentous events one should intentionally take mental snapshots so that the memories last longer.  Qualifying our departure for the mission field as a momentous occasion, I tried to slow down and take in the sights and sounds.  I'll try to recount the pictures as I remember them in "Eric's mental photo album."

1) Before we left for the airport, a few friends dropped by to say goodbye and get one last dose of Mitchell energy for their kids.  Of course, all our friends have at least 3 kids, so there were about 15 energy balls in the back yard playing.  At one point, they were all lined up for a race and had the biggest smiles on their faces.  Off to the side however, all the moms faces were filled with tears or were fighting them back.  To the kids, it was just another playdate on a Tuesday morning.  To the moms, it was the realization that these childhood friendship will be put on hold for a while.

2) Approaching the Delta check-in counter with 14 totes/suitcases and six passports brought a jaw dropped look of "this is going to be a long check in" from the guy behind the counter.  As each bag weighed 52 pounds (they needed to be less than 50 so I guess my scale was off two pounds) and I tried to redistribute the weight to a few lighter bags, I looked behind me to now see a line of twenty people waiting to check in.  Oh well.  "Should have gotten to the airport two hours before your domestic flight like they warn you about... there may be some crazy international traveller in front of you."

3) After many hugs and "see you laters," we were walking down the long hallway toward the airport security check-in.  I remember looking forward and seeing Erin and the three oldest boys all walking with their carry on luggage in tow.  The boys were very excited to have their "own luggage" and were bouncing excitedly toward the TSA folks in blue.  With Tucker in arms, I looked back and vividly remember seeing who we were leaving behind.  I saw our families standing there waving good-bye, full of emotion.  A few of the non emotionally constipated ones were crying, the rest were fighting back tears. I realized again that we were not the only ones sacrificing for the ministry.

4)  Sitting in the terminal with the boys all together drew many stares from the other passengers.  I'm sure some were thinking "I'm glad this is only a 40 minute flight to Detroit."  Others asked what we were up to, and after hearing "We're leaving to live in Kenya for two years," they almost always respond with "Oh wow, and those are all your boys? Good Luck!"

5) At one point on the plane, Alex asked why he couldn't take off his seatbelt.  When I told him that it was because the Captain said so, he wanted to know the Captain's name.  "I don't know," I responded. He thought for a moment..."Is it Captain Hook?"  "Maybe," I replied.  I hoped his Lieutenant had both hands.

6) During the flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi, I remember looking out the window and seeing the Mediterranean sea and the beaches of Egypt.  The sandy beaches were continuous with the sandy rest of Egypt.  Each hour for the next FOUR hours Cole and I looked out the window and said, "Still desert.  I really hope we don't crash in the middle of that."  If we crashed, the sand was the least of our worries. We were traveling at 530 mph, which gives you a good idea of how big the Sahara is.

7)  After a 40 minute flight, a seven hour flight, and then an eight hour flight, we finally touched down in the cool night of Nairobi.  Because the international terminal burnt down last week, we were shuttled by bus to a series of tents where we would go through immigration and customs.  It seemed like a million people were in line to get their Visas, all crammed into a big white wedding tent.  By this point we had only slept a few hours here and there on the flights and Erin and the boys were exhausted.  (I was actually feeling pretty energized by the whole experience.  It was akin to the middle of the night trauma code which keeps you awake.)  Cooper refused to walk or pull his carry-on he used to be so excited about, Alex and Cole kept tripping and falling over, and Tucker was being vocal about his current lot in life.  I was in the process of thinking, "This is going to be a long night," when a Kenyan official pointed at me and said, "You white boy with all the screaming kids and the half asleep wife, come with me to the front of the line so we don't have to listen to all of this for the next two hours." OK, those weren't her exact words, but that is what I heard.  I then took a mental snapshot of how she somehow parted the sea of people and there was a clear path to the front of the line.  Like the Israelites crossing the Jordan, our ragamuffin family stumbled forward. Ten minutes and $300 later, we were officially welcomed to Kenya.

8)  The next stop was another white wedding style tent labeled "Baggage pickup."  Again, another mass of people.  This time they were waiting to be cut loose to get their bags.  Because of the fire there was no conveyer belt, so we had to wait until all the luggage was unloaded and put on the ground in "rows." Knowing I would have to find all fourteen pieces of 50 lb luggage, I strategically told Erin and the boys to wait outside the tent.  They were content sleeping, reading and playing with Tucker sized grasshoppers. Once the bags were all out, the passengers were let in to scavenge.  I was reminded of the videos you see on the news of a black Friday mob rushing into Walmart to get a $10 flat screen TV.  Luckily no one tripped and was trampled to death.  My mental snapshot of this event is captioned with "This is Afrika."

9)  I could only account for 13 bags.  A black duffle bag tagged with a red piece of duct tape was no where to be found.  Great.  We either lost a bag, or someone else decided our luggage looked good on their cart.  I put all our bags in a big pile and then went on one last look around the tent for my lost sheep.  Like any good missionary I said a heartfelt prayer as I walked.  "God, I need one more bag. Show me where it is."  I didn't see it anywhere.  I started inspecting the luggage carts of those in line for customs.  Nothing. Over the loud speaker an announcement was made.  "Thank you for taking only the bags that belong to you."  "Uh-huh," I thought. "I wonder what prompted that announcement."  More prayers ensued.  Eventually I circled back to check on my pile of located luggage.  Still there, 13/14 found.  Then, in a small pile of unclaimed luggage right next to my pile was my lost sheep of a bag.  "Sweet!  God you are so good.  I have no idea how that got here, but I'll take it!"  Mental snapshot of a black bag with a piece of red duct tape = a reminder that God answers prayers and honors the faithful.

10) As I write this, I'm taking another mental snapshot, of Erin and Alex asleep in the bed at the guest house, still recovering after a whirlwind of travels.  Above them hangs a painting of a lion and her cubs, and an elephant with her calf.  Fitting.  Not sure why I was awake at 6:30am this morning, but I'll take all the quiet time alone I can get.  With a 7 hour time difference, our bodies think it is around midnight. In front of me is a tray of breakfast I brought back for them...they all slept through breakfast hour.

If you read this far I applaud your endurance.  More later as the adventure continues.  There are plenty of empty pages left to fill in my mental photo album.

That's What I'm Doing These Days....

What we're up to these days:

The countdown till Kenya is on! We leave in less than three months...second week in August.

Here's a little of what we've been doing to prepare:

1- Garage sale/purging    Part of me loves getting rid of stuff...its so freeing; part of me hates getting rid of stuff, I feel like I am selling my life away, all my kids toys that they've loved, house decorations, baby clothes, etc. But they are only material things, I get to take my real life with me. We have pretty bad luck overall when it comes to garage sales, this time we had freezing cold/rainy May weather. Oh well. For getting rid of a lot of stuff we somehow still have a full house. Hmmmm. 

2- Selling our house  We are trying to sell this beauty. Selling a house brings up interesting emotions. You don't want to live there anymore (for whatever reason) but you become very offended when other people don't want it either. :) We are waiting on the Lord's timing. We have only had  5 showings and no offers. However, if we sold it today we'd have to move once (or even twice) before we leave, so maybe God's just helping us avoid that. We'll see! We've loved this house and I get a little teary thinking about not living here anymore. It's truely been our home. 

3- School's almost out! Can't believe Cole is almost done with 1st grade and we are almost done with our time at Vanguard Charter Academy.

 Cole has loved his time there and we have been happy with the school. Time to transition from public school to homeschool! (more below)

4- The lasts have already started- Summer is soo busy and people go on vacation at different times, so lasts have already started, last trips here or there around Grand Rapids, last playdates with certain friends, last soccer games, etc. I hate good-byes!! But we are trying to live it up and make the most of our last few months. We have a busy, busy summer. Vacation with my (Erin's) family, Eric finishes up working, we're going camping, Eric's doing a Tough Mudder, a going away party, we're going to eat a lot of ice cream, swim and hang out with friends and family. 

Cole playing AYSO soccer

5. Training- We also have training with World Medical Mission for 10 days, July 24-August 3. After thinking and re-thinking it, we have decided not to take the boys. They would be in childcare at a strange church with strangers watching them for 8-9 hours a day. So instead the grandparents are going to split up watching them. Pray for the boys, the grandparents, and us! 10 days is a long time! And it will be right in the midst of a lot of transition.

6- Figuring out homeschool curriculum- This has been keeping me busy lately, trying to figure out what we will use to teach the boys. Cooper will be in Kindergarten and there will be a class for him! 5 little kindergartners will be taught by Theresa Manchester, one of the missionary moms. I am excited for him, I think he will do well in this small class. I will be doing the bulk of Cole's schooling, with some possible co-oping with Stephanie Kelley, another missionary mom. We are trying to figure out what curriculum will challenge and engage Cole the best. There are a LOT of choices! Pray that we use wisdom in deciding. I was dreading homeschooling when I first heard that was my only option, but I am actually looking forward to it now! (shocking!) We miss Cole when he is gone all day at school and I will now get to use my teaching skills that have laid dormant for the past few years. 

Thank you for your prayers in this crazy, busy time in our lives!